HOLIDAY (970 WFLA) -- Former Major League Baseball pitcher and Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay has been killed in a plane crash in the shallow Gulf waters off the Pasco County coast.
Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco says Halladay's body was recovered from an Icon A5 single-engine aircraft that crashed near Bailey's Bluff around 12:06 p.m.
Nocco describes Halladay as a friend of the sheriff's office. He urged people to pray for Halladay, and urged reporters to give his family privacy. Halladay lived not far from the crash site.
Icon says Halladay had received the first model of the updated 2018 A5, and released a video about the aircraft featuring Halladay. It also features Halladay's wife, Brandy, talking about how she initially "fought hard" against him buying the plane.
An Icon representative issued a statement which reads, in part... "We have gotten to know Roy and his family in recent months, and he was a great advocate and friend of ours. The entire ICON community would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Roy’s family and friends. ICON will do everything it can to support the accident investigation going forward."
Halladay was 40.
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Video Credit: ICON Aircraft